William Rivers Pitt | An Open Letter to Lovers of the Gun

[davidthegnome]

161. I tend to stay out of these debates.

I tend to stay out of them because they lead, primarily, to a major head ache.

With that being said... I do not think that the problem we are having in this Country, is with gun owners in general. I believe that there are root causes of this violence, and I believe that they are primarily bullying - and anger. As a young boy, I was frequently bullied in school, I couldn't begin to describe how many times, or by how many people, or how very awful it was to live my young life as if I were in some kind of prison. Rather than getting angry and hating the children who made me miserable, I was more inclined to agree with them when they called me names. I'd internalize it - this led to a number of issues later in my life... but I am glad (a whole lot of therapy later) that I chose that route.

Other people do not internalize these feelings the same way. Other people will lash out with whatever they can. If all they have is a knife - they will use it. They will use guns. They would use their fists. They would use bricks. They would use bombs. They will take what they can get to strike back at those who are quite honestly ruining their lives through cruelty and taunting. In fact - they already use all of these things. Imagine what the bullied, angry child, denied a gun, might grow up to one day become.... there, perhaps, we see the root cause of so much of the terrible violence in our Counry.

Give a gun to a rational person, and they will probably keep it and use it rationally (if they use it at all). Give a gun to an angry child... or give them access to one... and, well, we are seeing the results.

If we really want to do something about these killings, then it is not only gun control that needs to be considered. It is how our children are treated - by other children, by teachers, by adults living in our communities. The golden rule is very simple - if we all lived by it, or even made more of an effort to... we could begin to make progress in stopping such acts of terrible violence and hatred.

Every so often, there seems to be some big media push to do something about bullying, but it never lasts very long. There is always something either more terrible, or some moronic celebrity obsession nonsense to replace it. Interesting though, when you consider that Justin Bieber (the young man who just got a DUI) is so taunted, so harassed, so very bullied by our media and pop culture that occasionally claim to want to fix things. In a reasonable Country - that young man would be either ignored, or given the treatment he needed, without so much rage, laughter, and general international mockery. (On Edit: Because I'm sure someone is going to point out, "Hey, Bieber is Canadian!" Yes... I know. As someone who lives right up on the border, I've been to Canada a number of times - Canada and the US have a great deal in common - idiotic media being among these things.)

The "bully problem" is everywhere within our culture. Some times it is very subtle - some times it is completely visible to everyone. Whatever the case may be - until we address THIS problem, I fear the school slayings will continue, regardless of the weapon used.